These Russian Dogs Hunt for Bombs at Power Stations

Fifteen hydroelectric plants yield energy to a 3 million people of Dagestan, and any of them is a tantalizing aim for terrorists in a Russian commonwealth confronting an Islamic insurgency. Their confidence is paramount, and it starts with dogs.

Forty German and Belgian shepherds join guards in safeguarding the plants, sniffing out any pointer of trouble. Photographer Yuri Ivashchenko spent 5 days during a Chirkey and Miatli energy stations in 2014 sharpened his series Dagestan Cynology.

His work for a dog-training association Rushydro got off to an ungainly start when a profound German shepherd transient her enclosure and bit his leg. “The handlers joked that it was a greeting,” Ivashchenko says. He followed a handlers and their dogs as they patrolled a plants and surrounding mountains, searched cars and trucks, and finished training exercises.

Ivaschenko came to conclude a bond between handlers and their dogs, who trust any other with their lives. “It is a really insinuate relationship,” he says.